Friday, September 11, 2009

Amateur ham radio users to contact orbiting space station

Amateur ham radio users to contact orbiting space station

KUALA LUMPUR: Fancy chatting with someone in the International Space Station orbiting the earth? You may get a chance to if you’re among the participants at this year’s HITBSecConf — an annual international network-security conference.

The special session will see the Malaysian Amateur Radio Emergency Service Society (Mares) — a non-profit, non-government organisation — attempt to establish a live communications feed with the station during the conference.

Normally, Mares members provide communications service in times of disasters or when normal communications channels are either down or congested.

The session is one of the highlights of HITBSecConf 2009, which is scheduled for Oct 5-8 at The Crowne Plaza Mutiara hotel here.

Also while the conference focuses on network security, its lock-picking workshop is popular among the participants.

This year’s workshop will be run by members from Toool — The Open Organisation of Lockpickers — and will provide attendees with the opportunity to try their hand at picking locks.

They’ll also get a chance to crack safes while some of the locks that’ll be worked on will be provided by the public.

Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, founder and CEO of Hack In The Box (M) Sdn Bhd which organises the HITBSecConf series, said the objective of the event is to teach people how to better protect their property — both in the real world and in cyberspace.

In the case of lockpicking, he said, “Many people are unaware of how easy it is to compromise locks and other physical security mechanisms.”

He said the lock-picking workshop would educate participants in a fun and interesting manner. “Attendees are encouraged to bring their own locks from home,” he added.

The conference has been held in Malaysia since 2003. It is endorsed by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and industry, the Malaysian National Computer Confederation, and the Malaysian Multimedia Development Corporation.